I’ve encountered the scam artists in Barcelona, Paris, Madrid, Oslo, and Rome as well as smaller centers like along the Cote d’Azure. Paris IMO was about the densest concentration. I’ve also seen Facebook posts of someone using a variation of the ring scam in my own neighborhood on a local in the last few weeks.
They are easy to spot and easier to avoid - keep walking and don’t engage.
Feel free, but you were just lucky.
It is a real problem if an organized group picks on you. You might have to get physical. I have not been to Paris for many years, and it seems to have been quite different back then. You can get group attacks like the one you mention in the Third World, which can be really nasty, and in many places it is best to have at least two people, preferably more, to scare them off.
What nationality were the girls? In Germany I often saw Romanian professional beggars.
These girls maintain an air of innocence, and the papers they are supposedly trying to get you to sign are probably blameless. I would not recommend getting physical if that means hitting them or something, I’m sure their enforcer is nearby to protect them, and you might be the one to end up in jail or hospital. As for ethnicity, I have no idea, nor can I see what difference it makes.
My go to Paris advice is the batobus (boat bus, hop-on hop off). They sell tickets that are good for the day or a couple of days (it might be 24 hours or 48 hours). This is not fast transportation, but it is scenic transportation up and down the Seine. I like to take the batobus around once during the day to see the sights from the river and also take the last Batobus of the evening that leaves from the Eiffel Tower to get a spin around the river at night as well.
First I have to say that I love Paris, and I’ve been there many times.
But last time I was there I was deliberately tripped while entering a Metro train. I was sent sprawling on the floor. Fortunately my few valuables were well protected so the thief (I’m sure) didn’t get anything.
Does pipi-sauvage still persist and how bad is it really?
Not nearly as bad as Shanghai.
I was in Paris completely solo for nine days a couple of years ago, walked around a bunch in crowded places and quiet side streets. No issues, no attempted theft, no scams, no problems. 57 years old at the time.
I was there in March hoping to hit fewer crowds of raging tourists. No dice: any place that was a Paris sight-to-see was completely mobbed always.
The Musée du Quai Branly features indigenous art from outside Europe. The collection is well presented, and some of the works are really mind-bending. It’s close to the Eiffel Tower.
I second this. A very enjoyable museum experience, and a good change up from all the impressionists 
I went to Paris in September 2017, and my best pieces of advice are:
(BTW, you’re already off by a day: if you arrive on Sunday and spend that night in Bayeux and the next night at Mont Saint-Michel, you don’t get back to Paris until Tuesday. 
)
I will add to my list to check out.!
you are right.
Oh, yes, about this: we found the Paris Pass great value for the money, but then we used the Metro a lot - hell, just being able to jump the queue at Versailles was worth the cost, to me.
That was my plan. But now that you’ve told everybody, the petite bourgeoise queues are going to be as long as the ones for the unwashed masses.
I’m not going.
It easier to just get there early, before the great unwashed do whatever it is they do in the morning. I had Versailles all to myself on a Tuesday morning. Walked all the gardens and was basically alone at Maria Antonetts cottage at noon while people were backed up at the front trying to get in.
This holds true to every major attraction in the world. People think vacation is for sleeping late. You can stay home and do that.
Also, Paris is the number one tourist destination for French People. It’s kind of like Washington DC for the French … which means that local tourist destinations are exceptionally busy when the locals have time off. I see that school holidays start October 23 (???). October is the end of high season, it’s not summer busy, but I think there will probably be a bump there, not a tailing off.
Then my work here is done. 
And I bought advance tickets for a “skip the line!” tour and ended up waiting 90 minutes in the rain to go into a mobbed Versailles. Seriously, it was like XMas Eve gift shopping at the only mall in town, all I saw was the backs of heads. Which still looked like a shorter wait than the crowd out front, but I think your way - go at cocks crow - would have worked better.
Yep, this has never failed me, but didn’t make me to popular with the kids when I had them with me. The Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Palace of Versailles, Notre Dame, Statue of Liberty, Tower of London, Disneyland, Niagara Falls Boat, Hersey Factory, the Met, Central Park horse rides and numerous beaches/ breweries/parks were much better enjoyed by getting up early and enjoying the visit during the cooler morning hours rather than sitting in a line with the sun beating down on you with the great non-planners.
It’s really a no brainer. You can eat and drink earlier in the day, no one is says you have to wait until dark to do that. And quite frankly eating and drinking at night in places like Paris and Barcelona is not that enjoyable and is more dangerous. The seedy element is looking for pigeons to fleece later in the evening. Barcelona and Amsterdam are the only cities I saw at late night and they are the only cities I felt threatened in at night. London, Tokyo and New York were safe at night.